Yale New Haven Health bought the property from an affiliate of former Starter Corp. CEO David Beckerman’s Acorn Group last August for about $8 million. Both then-Mayor Ed O’Brien and current Mayor Nancy Rossi hailed the project at the time.

The unanimous approval of the project’s site plan and two special permits came over the objections of a number of area neighbors concerned about possible noise, traffic, light pollution and truck traffic late at night and early in the morning.

They also expressed concerns about possible Native American burial sites in the area and how the project on the 116-acre site on former water authority land might affect their property values.

“No one in the neighborhood has objections to the development of property. It’s the type of development that has caused objections in this case,” said Yates Street resident Lesley Roche Lopes.

Gerald York, also of Yates Street, questioned the applicant’s traffic estimate, saying, “176 trucks per day, into and out of this site, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” and asked, “Does that present a ... burden to someone” who pays taxes and lives nearby.

With that much traffic, he said he worries about both diesel and noise pollution, and asked commission members, “Would you purchase a house that’s 800 feet from a facility that has 176 trucks going in and out a day? My answer is no.”

York said he has an investment of around $360,000 in his property, doesn’t think he could sell it for much more than $180,000 right now and worries that once the project is built, he might not be able to sell it at all.

“This will radically alter the quality of life of every person whose property abuts this,” he said.

The PZC, after a separate public hearing, also unanimously approved two applications related to The Haven upscale outlet mall, including several zoning regulation text changes and the addition of several properties to the Waterfront Design District zoning map.

About 40 people attended the meeting in the Harriet C. North Community Room on the second floor of City Hall.

In a presentation at the start of the Yale New Haven Health hearing, Yale New Haven Health Vice President of Facilities Stephen Carberry, who was joined by lawyer Susan Hayes of Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, at least two architects and several consultants, said the regional operations center would be “more than just a central warehouse center ... This facility will allow us to buy directly from suppliers and then district (supplies) to all our facilities.”

He said it was similar to systems set up by health care systems elsewhere in the country.

The West Haven site was chosen from 10 different possible sites across the state because it was central to New Haven, where the largest amount of the supplies would be going.

“We’re very lucky that we were able to find this this close,” he said.

Yale New Haven Health officials “also want to be good neighbors” so they were “careful about the way we oriented the building,” Carberry said. After initially coming up with a plan that had the facility’s 20 truck loading bays facing Plainfield Avenue, “we flipped it around so that the truck bays would not be facing the residents,” he said.

Development work will be done in a “green” manner, as much as possible, he said.

Architect Daniel Granniss, principal with the SLAM Collaborative’s Glastonbury office, pointed out that while the proposed building would be 142,000 square feet, have 120 parking spaces and employ 102 people on two shifts, it was much smaller than what previously was approved as part of the Acorn application, which totaled about 1 million square feet.

He also pointed out the project would set aside 39 acres to be preserved.

Access to the site would be only from the Route 34, or Derby Avenue, side, although there would be an emergency exit on Maltby Avenue.

Allingtown resident Margaret Krzyminski said “there are different ways of getting there” and “I don’t want (trucks) coming through Allingtown. I don’t want them coming through Fairfax (Street) to get to this facility.”

Ruth Torres, a West Haven resident who is a member of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation’s Traditional Women’s Council, pointed out that the area around Maltby Lakes previously has been found to contain Native American remains and asked the PZC to make it a condition of approval that an assessment be done of whether there are any burial grounds on the project site.

“We have no legal standing to do that” because there is nothing in the city’s zoning regulations that would give the PZC authority to do so, replied PZC Chairwoman Kathleen Hendricks.

Members of Yale New Haven Health’s team said the project would comply with the city’s noise ordinance and state law.

With regard to traffic, Hayes said that the 176 trucks York referred to was actually 176 trips. “That’s 88 trucks per day,” she said.

The highest truck volume would be between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., although company representatives acknowledged that there would be a lower volume of trucks coming and going at earlier and later hours.

“Linen is a big part of the operation that is earlier in the day,” said Carberry. The rest of the day “it could be anything. It could be UPS. It could be FedEx. ... We’re using mostly short-body trucks” but there is “an occasional tractor-trailer” and “there will be time when a truck will come in at 12 or 1 o’clock in the morning.”

Hendricks called the PZC’s decision “a tough one” and said that “anytime that there’s a change that happens in a neighborhood, there is always concern.”

But she said the applicant has “done their due diligence.”

Board member Steven R. Mullins pointed out that “this property, for years — for decades,” has been vacant. He said he was concerned for the neighbors, “So far, from what I’ve seen of the applicant, they have been extremely cautious of the neighborhood.

“I believe Yale, Yale New Haven Health is an organization that would be more than willing to work with the city ... and I believe that all of the issues ... with the neighbors can be overcome,” he said.

The approved applications by The Haven Group LLC, which drew little public comment, included a proposed “text change” amendment to the city’s zoning regulations governing how public access walkways count as part of developers’ open space calculations within comprehensive development or redevelopment plans.

The PZC also approved eliminating a restriction on the use of at-grade parking lots within the Waterfront Design District, as well as to modify area and bulk requirements in the WD District to reduce maximum building coverage from 40 percent to 35 percent; increase maximum impervious surface coverage from 20 percent to 60 person; increase maximum lot coverage from 60 percent to 80 percent, and reduce minimum open space from 40 percent to 30 percent.

The PZC also amended the zone’s parking standards to require one parking space per 250 square feet for a regional shopping center instead of the current requirement of one parking space per 200 square feet.

A second application that the PZC approved amended the city’s zoning map to include several additional properties in the Waterfront Design District, including properties at 30 Main St., 32 Main St., 38 Main St., 40 Main St., 48 Main St., 32 Bayview Place, 20 Bayview Place and the Southeast Corner of Main Street and Bayview Place.

While The Haven officials have said they plan to begin construction in the spring, they have yet to file an application for site plan review, which must be approved before any work can begin.